Hamilton Beach - Turkey Roaster - Cheese Vat

[pliezar (Ian)]

My sister in law gave me her Electric roaster on Saturday, I ran some tests using water and Sunday used it to do a batch of Gouda.  I will have to see how the end results are, but I have some tweaking to do.  It is maybe 4 years old and I was able to get the milk to warm using a dial below the first notch.  I used the warming area.  I did have some issues with the curd during renting, but a few tweaks I should be OK.  If it still does not work then I will buy a steamer tray for it and do an insert.
Here is the Dial and I highlighted the area in Red.  I know it says I have it on the highest, but this was how she gave it to me  I turned it down before I used it.

[Buck47]

Does your roaster have a lift out tank? If so did you place water between the tank and the roaster housing?

I use 10 cups water between the two - this gives a nice water bath - hence a much better heat transfer.

As to the heat adjustments. I have found, 4 gallons of milk once brought to temp will hold a long time. Always long enough to match recipe requirements.

A bit of caution is need not to over shoot temp marks, and always monitor for temp creep as the water bath keeps transferring heat if you heat to long.

That said, I find once I got use to it's operation I have exacting control.

Let us know how your doing.  Regards: john

[pliezar (Ian)]

Does your roaster have a lift out tank? If so did you place water between the tank and the roaster housing? (

It does have a lift out pan and the main housing is a sealed unit that has the same enamel finish.  I was lucky to get the manual with it and there is a warning not to put liquid into the housing. ( I might anyway as I said it is a sealed unit and I wont go past the warming stage anyway.) 

I did notice that the heat conduction was a bit dodgy.  I will have to see how much water to put in as I can only get 14 Litres of milk in it.  Thanks for the warning on the temperatures I did have some issues I think the water bath would solve that.

Cheers
Ian

[OlJarhead]

I'm going to try this today or tomorrow with one I just borrowed.  If it works I'm buying it.

Any updates from others?  Did you use the lid?

I've got to fix the Dutch Press to have it ready and find a weight but I'm excited about making 4 gallons into cheese instead of one!

[pliezar (Ian)]

Hi,

I use the lid during the ripening phase just to help maintain the temperature and after I have my floc time.  It seems to work well

Cheers.

[OlJarhead]

Thanks!  So far so good

I've had to put an oak stick across the top to hold the cheese thermometer but so far it is working EXACTLY like folks here have said!  THANK!

One note:  Don't add 10 cups of water!  I have an 18quart pan which is holding JUST shy of 4 gallons.  With 10 cups in the lower section the water spills out.  Seems like 6 cups might be better.

[shaun38]

Thanks for these ideas, I will try to use them with my new roaster!

[sharonjames]

This seems like a very good cheese recipe by electric roaster. I have a Oster and I think I will take a try.

[feather]

I use the 18 qt electric roasters for cheese making. I don't put water in the outer heating part, under the pan. I have a Nesco roaster and then a Bella roaster from a rummage sale, $10. I've made about 92 batches of 4 gallons each, 33 kinds of cheese.

A thermometer tells me the temperature, the dial on the roaster for temperature tells me if it is heating or if I want, I turn it off. There is some residual heat in the roaster so it gets turned off before reaching target temperature. After a while, I just got used to it.

Many of the electric roasters have non-stick finishes on the pan. This will be a problem over time, so I scrubbed the non-stick finish off and it works well.